Political Debates on Multiculturalism and Identity Formation among Citizens of Migrant Origin

In this paper we examine how the political debate on migration and integration affects the identity formation among people of migrant origin in Switzerland. People of migrant origin are a steadily growing group in most Western European countries as well as in the US (c.f. Bowler and Segura 2010). Apart from Luxembourg, Switzerland stands out as the country in Europe with the highest share of first and second generation migrants (34.7% of the total population). At the same time, most European democracies have witnessed the rise of radical right parties, which have successfully influenced political debates. In Switzerland the nationalist Swiss people’s party has even become the largest political party gathering 27 % of the votes. Such parties divide society into two groups, migrants and natives, by portraying migrants as a homogenous group, which is endangering the natives’ economic status as well as their cultural traditions. We know, however, little about how such appeals affect citizens’ social identity and especially migrants’ identification with their new host country. According to the acculturation theory, migrants adjust to their receiving society by shaping their identity. In consequence of this acculturation process, migrants identify “with their heritage culture [only], with [their receiving nation], with both, or with neither” (Brown and Zagefka 2011, p. 133). Although there has been a substantial amount of studies on migrant’s identity (cf. Berry 1997; Brewer et al. 2013), little empirical work exist on how the social environment inflicts upon migrants’ acculturation preferences. To our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to test whether political parties are able to impede or to facilitate the development of dual identity (identification with host nation and heritage culture) among migrants. We test for this possibility using an experimental design and show that negative statements on multiculturalism affect migrants’ acculturation preferences.